Spring cushion construction



Aug. 18, 1935. R. s. JONES SPRING CUSHION CONSTRUCTION v Filed NOV. 50, 1934 INVENTOR. For 5, f0/Vf5.

M M y M ATTORNEYS Patented Aug. 18, 193

uni-ran stares PATENT arms Barber Manufacturing Company,

Ind, a corporation Anderson,

Application-November 30, 1934, SerialNo. 755,264 2 Claims. (01. 155-179) This invention relates to a spring cushion structure suitable for upholstered chairs, davenports, and the like. V

The chief object of this invention is to provide 5 a structure which has all the advantages of the prior art as to cushioning and resiliency, and.

which in addition thereto, is constructed of a minimum number of parts and some of these so associated together that in addition to the aforel said advantages, the present invention has the additional advantage that lateral movement of the spring supporting strap is substantially prevented.

The present invention lnherentlyconsists of 15 two spaced rails which may be designated the frontand rear rail of a davenport, settee, chair,

or the like.. Mounted on the front rail is a-plate or bracket. Mounted on the back rail directly opposite is a similar, and in the preferred form 29 of the invention, an identical bracket. A metal strap of resilient character has one end arranged to form one butt of a hinge.

- One of the brackets has a cooperating arrangement adapted to receive a hinge pin for hingedly 25 mounting the butt formed end of the strap. The opposite end .of the strap in the preferred form, is provided with a pair of apertures, one at each corner and a pair of helicals, each having hooks formed on opposite ends, and lying in transverse 0 planes, are associated at one end with the strap apertures and at the opposite end with the opposite plate or bracket.

To the strap is suitably secured in tandem relation the desired cushion coils and silencing means, if desired, may be associated with the strap and cushion coils for silencing the clicking of the coils on the strap. The upper ends of the cushion springs may be, if desired, associated with border wire or other means.

40 By the aforesaid arrangement, a relatively elongated hinge pin bearing is obtained at the hinge of the strap and a diverging tension support is obtained at the opposite end of the strap,

which diverging tension arrangement serves to 45 resist lateral movement of the strap when in use.

Positioning of the ends of the helicals in transverseplanes provide in effect a universal connection between the adjacent rail and the apertured end-of the strap permitting up and down movement under load andwhen the helicals are posistood from the accompanying drawing and the I following description and claims: a In the drawing, Fig. 1 is atop plan view of a f portion of one form of frame structure, iii/eluding the spring cushion arrangement embodying the 5' invention, certain portions being broken away to illustrate other portions in det Fig. 2 is a front to rear sectional view taken on line 22 of Fig. land in the direction of the arrows, the full lines illustrating the normal posltion of certain of the parts, when not under load and the dotted lines illustrating a position of some of these parts when subjected to load. I

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of one of the hinge forming plates with the associated hinge pin-or i5 pintle mounted thereon. I

Fig. 4 is a. similar view of a portion of an identical plate with a portion of one of the'helicals 7 associated therewith.

In the drawing there is illustrated a main frame including a front rail i0 and a rear or back rail il suitably connected together. as by side rail it. A plate It is suitably secured to the front railiil by the screws l5 passing through the apertures l 6. in said plate. Said plate includes a pair of projecting portions I! in spaced relation, the spacing preferably being at least equal to the width of the metal strap, hereinafter to be described. The portions I! are formed by slitting the plate-as at l8 and the metal portion between a pair of these slits is deformed to form a socket adapted. to receive a hinge pin. herein the hinge pin or pintle is in the form of an angular rod having the main body portion is and an angular end 20.

The strap 2| at one end is curled as at-'22. to form acomplementary socket which, when aligned with the two SOCkGtSi formed by the portions I1, is adapted to receive the pintle l9 and thus hingedly support-one end of the strap to 40 the ffo'nt rail. The opposite'end of the strap in the preferred form of .the invention, is apertured at'each corner as at 23.-

Suitably secured to the inside of the back railisanother plate It, herein shown identical with the plate of the front rail. Screws I E- pass through apertures 16 'insaid plate for mounting the latter. The socket portions II are adapted to receive the 'semi-circular'hook-like end' 24 of a closely coiled helical'spring-25, the opposite end I of which is in the form of a similar semi-circular hook 26. This hook '26 is positioned, in a plane substantially transverse to the plane of the hook it and the two hooks are in alignment with reference to the longitudinal axis of the helical.

The hook 26 is positionable in the aperture 23 in the strap with the mouth up. s As shown clearly in Fig. 1, this form of mounting, due to the fact that the spacing between the. two portions I] of the plate is at least equal to the width of the strap, there results a diverging relationship between the two helicals which.

yieldingly secure the nonpivoted end of the strap to the'back rail. It will be noted that the hooks 24 permit swiveling about the axis of the sockets I'I-that is, about a horizontal axis-and also the hooks 26 permit up and down movementof th strap relative to said hooks.

When the two springs 25 are positioned P rallel to each other and instead of plate ll having the spacing equal to the strap spacing, said plate has its sockets spaced the same distance as the spacing between the apertures 23, then the two springs when thus connecting the strap to the rear rail provide for universal movements Preferably, however, the diverging relationship is employed because any tendency then of the load applied to theseat to move the strap laterally, will be resisted by one or the other of said divergingly arranged springs.

In Fig. 2, the dotted line indicates in a general way, the position assumed by the strap and springs-when subjected .to load, such as a person sitting down. It will be observed this dotted po sition does not show the strap in alignment with a plane, but there is.a slight bowing of the strap and this is permitted because the strap is resilient, although upon the release of load, it will assume a position coincident with a plane.

Herein the cushion construction is shown embodying a plurality of spaced double conical cush- -ion springs 30. The strap 2l'at the desired intervals is provided with slits 3| in paired and spaced relation and the intermediate portion 32 between each pair of slitsis offset and forms a socket to receive the end turn 33 ofthe double coil spring; .Thus, each cushion spring is rigidly anchored, to the strap and the cushion springs are arranged in tandem and the desired spaced relation upon saidstrap.

Merely as an exampleof one form of completed cushion construction, attention is invited to a border wire 34 which, by means of clips 35, is clampingly associated with the top coils 33' of the border arranged cushion springs. If desired, suitable wire lacing or other type of lacing 31 be associated with the several springs'to form a unitary top structure. Such lacing is also associated with clips", if and when desired.

when the springs are subjected to load, it frequently happens the second bottom turn and. sometimes even the third, of one or more of the cushion springs operatively bears on the strap 2|.

Thiscreates a clicking action on the initial contact therewith. Consequently, in certain forms Q of the invention, silencing means is provided'and .cting opposite end is turn downwardly and herein the same includes a fabric strip 40 which at each end has a-sewedloop ll. q

A clip 42 has its central portion nested in said loop and its ends 43 turned downwardly'andthen inwardly toward eachother in strap-em-' bracing relation. The initialform'o'f this wire clip'is a straight portion and one end turned as illustrated. The straight portion is inserted through the loop. The hook endportion is positioned to nestingly receive the strap and the pro- .then reversely toward the first mentioned hook end. F

The silencing strip, as is clearly shown-in m 1 and 2, is interposed between the strap 2| and the second lowermost turn of the cushion spring and between the lowermost turn and the second lowermost turn of said cushion spring, since only a relatively small portion of the lowermost turn, which overlaps the strap, is in turn overlapped by. the anchoring portions 32 of the'strap.

Between cushion springs, similar clips 45 may be employed. Herein, the strip 42 is shown of lesser width than the strap 2 I, although the strip 10 may be of the same width and of greater width.

' if desired.

Longitudinal movement of the strip relative to the strap may be prevented by the, end clips 42-43, having the portion 42 enclosed by the 15 loop ll of said strip, and the loop bearing against the end anchoring portion 32 whenever longitudinal movement of the strip is to be positively prevented. However, as shown herein, the clips 42-43-45 normally are suihcient to relatively 20 fixedly secure the strip to the strap in the predetermined position and maintain thesame therein.

It will be observed in the primary form oLthe invention, as well as the preferred form, that the 26 front and rear plates are identical and thus are interchangeable; and can be made by one die. This requires but a single part to be carriedin stock. It is to be noted that forming the end of the strap with a curled socket forming portion, 80

provides a relatively elongated hinge bearing for the strap, thereby further eliminating the possibility of'cocking of the strap about its hinge pivot. Also, the helicals 25 are reversible and can be interchanged end for end and also the 86 helicals are commercially identical.

To accommodate a plurality of manufacturers of upholstered chairs, settees, sofas, davenports, and the like, all that is necessary is that the metal strap material be carried in stock, out to 40 the desired length and then one end formed with the curled socket, irrespective of the length of the strap, and the opposite end apertured as shown. The only modification to satisfy each manufacturer's requirements is the spacing be- 5 tween the adjacent pairs of slits 3| in said strap to accommodate different sizes of cushion springs and to provide for the desired spacing between the tandem molmted springs to be associated with said strap. Thus, for-the primary spring manufacturer, this invention provides for the fabrication of the basic structure for any subsequent upholstery manufacturer to build upon and with a minimum number of parts and with a minimum number of variations in operation.

v The invention claimed is:

1.]In a chair and the like, having a frame with a pair of spaced rails, aplurality of substantiallyparallel, relatively independent, flexible,

spring supporting, metal straps and a plurality of so cushion coils suitably secured at their bases to each strap and in tandem relation, and suitably secured'at their upper ends'into a unitary arrangement, the combination of connecting means between one rail and the ends of all straps adja- 66 'cent thereto and other connecting means between the opposed 'rail and the ends of said straps adjacent said opposed rail, one of said connecting means being resilient in character and the other being of hinge character, the connections at 09- 70 a strap and projecting from one face of said anchored to the adjacent oifset portion oi the adjacent plate, the resulting yielding connection being of diverging character for resisting lateral movement of the strap, the eflective elongated hinge connection preventing tilting of the strap about a longitudinal axis of the same and reducing the unit load transmitted by each longitudlnal element of the strap to the hinge pin.

2. The combination with a pair ofopposed spaced rails, a spring supporting metal strap operativelv associated at opposite ends with said rails, and a plurality oi cushion coils suitably secured at their bases to said strap and in tandem relation, of a silencing new longitudinaliy oi the strap and in between the lowermost turn and the second lowermost turn or each oi the cushion coils. the strap adjacent each cushion coil including a plurality of pairs oi slits, the pairs of slits being longitudinally l ned and grouped in pairs. each'palr group being diametrically associated with the bottom turn of a cushion coil, the intermediate portion. oi the strap between each pair 01' slits being offset from the race of the strap, the lowermost turn 01 the coil being interposed between said oiiset portion and the main body of the strap for coil anchorage, and c-clips embracing the strap and strip, one end of the silencing strip adjacent one end 01' the strap terminating in a loop; the juxtaposltioned clip being included in said loop and operatively associated with the immediately adjacent coil 'anchoringoilset portion of the strap. 2

ROY B. JONES. 

